Clothing construction



11, 1964 E. E. TYROLER 3,143,741

CLOTHING CONSTRUCTION Filed Jan. 28, 1963 INVENTOR.

BY #5? JrraRMEg/S United States Patent 3,143,741 CLOTHING CONSTRUCTION Els E. Tyroler, Los Angeles, Caiili, assignor to Eis, Inc, Los Angeles, Calif, a corporation of California Filed Jan. 28, 1963, Ser. No. 254,236

4 Claims. (Cl. 2227) This invention relates to clothing construction and more particularly to an improved construction for womens trousers.

In commericially manufactured and custom made pants or slacks for women, standard construction well known to the art is used, but such construction has certain deficiencies in obtaining a proper fit. In particular, the construction in accordance with the prior art causes the pant leg of the trousers to hang straight downwardly from the knee of the wearer such that the front edge of the cuif line is adjacent the ankle of the wearer while the back edge of the cuff line extends rearwardly beyond the ankle. That is, the pant leg does not hang in such a way that the leg of the wearer extending through the cutf of the pant leg is centered with the pant leg extending an equal distance forwardly and rearwardly from the ankle of the wearer.

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved construction for womens trousers or slacks which construction causes the pant leg of the trousers to hang downwardly in such manner that the leg of the wearer extends symmetrically from the lower cuff line of the pant leg such that the pant leg extends a greater distance forwardly than rearwardly from the ankle of the wearer.

It is another object of the present invention to provide such a construction for womens pants which construction is simple and economical and results in an improved fit, particularly in the manner in which the pant leg hangs relative to the leg of the wearer.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved construction for womens trousers which allows a better fit in the seat of the trousers.

The present invention is an improved construction for womens trousers which comprises a front panel for each leg of the trousers which is shorter along the seam lines than the back panel of the trouser leg. The front panel is adapted to be stretched to a length equal to the back panel during the joining of the front and back panels along the seam line. By the stretching operation, the front panel is placed in tension and causes the front crease line to be swung forwardly such that the hemline of the pant leg is swung forwardly relative to the leg of the wearer. The amount by which the front panel is shorter than the rear panel or back panel is such that the pant leg is swung forwardly to a symmetrical position with respect to the leg of the wearer protruding from the cull line of the pant leg or more such that the bottom of the pant legs extends farther forwardly than rearwardly of the ankle.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a view in perspective of a completed pair of womens trousers in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a side view of a presently preferred embodiment of a pair of trousers in accordance with the present invention showing the normal hanging line of a pair of trousers formed by the construction of the prior state of the art in phantom line with the trouser leg hanging in accordance with the present invention shown in solid line; and

FIGURE 3 is the pattern for the front and back panels of a single pant leg in a pair of womens trousers in accordance with the present invention.

Although the present invention is not limited to womens trousers, it has been found to be particularly advantageous in conneciton with the construction of womens trousers or pants and will accordingly be described in connection with such an application. Further, the present invention has been found to be particularly advantageous in the construction of womens trousers from elastic or semi-elastic materials now common to the art known as stretch materials. The presently preferred embodiment of the present invention will accordingly be described in connection with the construction of a pair of womens trousers from such material. Referring now to the drawing, there is shown an illustrative embodiment of a pair of womens trousers constructed in accordance with the present invention. Such trousers are formed of five pieces. Each pant leg A and B is formed by joining a front panel 19 to a back panel 11 and the two pant legs are in turn joined at the medial portion along the center front line 14 and the center back line 15 by crotch seam 16. A waistband facing or stiffening 17 then forms the upper edge of the trousers. It is with the construction of each pant leg from the front panel 10 and the back panel 11 with which the present invention is particularly concerned.

Referring now particularly to FIGURE 3, there is shown a front panel 10 and a back panel 11 in accordance with the present invention. The two panels are, of course, the same for each of the pant legs A and B so the assembly of only one is described in detail.

The back panel in accordance with the present invention is of a construction similar to that well known to the art having a center back line 15 and an inner leg seam line 20. A side leg seam line 21, a waist line 25 and a bottom hernline 26. The center back line 15 of the back panel 11 varies in curvature from the curvature heretofore utilized in the art to allow a better fit in the seat of the trousers. This is obtained by varying the curvature of line 15 more accurately to conform the body of the wearer in a seated position by making the curvature shown dotted more pronounced than usual, curve shown by solid line. With this exception, however, the back panel 11 is in other respects similar to the back panels heretofore utilized. The front panel 10 in accordance with the present invention comprises a center front line 14, a waist line 25, an inner seam line 20, an outer seam line 21 and a bottom hemline 26. In accordance with the present invention, the length of the front panel 10 is foreshortened with respect to the back panel 11 by a predetermined distance as discussed more fully hereinafter. The amount of shortening is typically of the order of one-half inch and as shown in the drawing the length of the front panel 10 corresponding to the length of the back panel is shown in phantom while the solid line is indicated as the hem line 26a. In this illustrative embodiment, the distance by which the front panel is foreshortened is approximately one-half inch. The foreshortening of the front panel occurs between the knee line 24 of the front panel such that above the knee lines the front and back panels are in all respects mateable. That is, the inner seam line 20 of the front and back panels corresponds from the center front line to the knee line in the front panel and from the center back line 15 to the knee line 24 in the back panel. Similarly, the side seam line 21 of both the front and back panels corresponds from the waist line 25 to the knee line 24 in both panels.

In assembling the front and back panels to form a pant leg of the trousers, the panels are joined by a seam extending from the Waist band to the knee line along the side seam and from the crotch seam 16 to the knee line along the inner seam. Thus, the two panels are joined by sewing a seam between the lines 21f and 21b to the knee line 24 and by sewing a seam between the inner seams 20f and 20b to the knee line 24. From that point downwardly, it is then necessary to exert tension on the front panel to pull the hemline 26a downwardly to the length shown by the dotted lines in FIGURE 3 which corresponds to the length at the hemline 26 of the back panel. That is, from the knee line downwardly along the seam line 20, the two lines 20 and 20b are joined while exerting a force in tension on the front panel; thus stretching the material in the front panel downwardly while the seam is being sewn. The amount of stretch exerted is, of course, that amount required to lengthen the front panel by the amount which it is foreshortened relative to the back panel. A similar stretching force is applied when sewing the side seam joining the side seam lines 21 and 21b. Thus, during the sewing operation when the part of the side legs seam 21 and inner legs seam 20 are being formed, the material in the front panel extending downwardly from the knee line 24 is sewn in tension and when the tension is released it exerts an upward pull on the hemline at the forward portion of the pant leg.

As shown in FIGURE 2, the line 30 in phantom illustrates the ordinary way in which the crease line 22 of the trousers hangs when the panels are formed of equal length as in the prior art. In solid lines, however, the front crease line 22 of the pant leg is shown to hang forwardly of the phantom'line 30. This is caused by the initial tension in the front panel which causes the front panel to exert an upward and outward force when released after the seam is sewn.

It can thus been seen that the front crease line 22 and the back crease line 23 are swung forwardly by the tension force and the hemline 26 is symmetrically oriented relative to the ankle of the wearer or extends more forwardly than rearwardly.

From the foregoing, it can be seen that the amount by which the front panel is foreshortened, that is, the length between the hemline 26a and the finished length of the pant leg 26 is dependent upon the type of material utilized and the force exerted to stretch the material downwardly to its final length. The amount of foreshortening being such that when the force exerted upon the front panel is relaxed it causes the cuff line 26 of the assembled trousers to be swung forwardly by the required distance.

After the two pant legs A and B are formed as described above, the pants are finished in the normal way by forming the crotch seam 16 and attaching the facing 17.

Although the present invention is particularly adapted to stretch type materials, all fabrics have a certain degree of elasticity and the invention is equally applicable to these other types of materials.

What is claimed is:

1. An improved trouser construction comprising: a front leg panel, a back leg panel, said panels having mated inner seam lines and mated side seam lines, said front panel being foreshortened relative to the back panel and stretched at said inner and side seams to the length of the back panel and sewed thereto.

2. An improved trouser construction comprising: a front leg panel, a back leg panel, said panels being mateable along inner seam lines and side seam lines, said front panel being foreshortened relative to the back panel between the knee line and cuff line thereof, said front panel being stretched to the length of the back panel and sewed thereto at the inner and side seams thereof.

3. The method of constructing trouser legs comprising: forming a back panel, forming a front panel, said front panel being foreshortened relative to said back panel, joining said panels while exerting a tension force on said front panel sufiicient to lengthen said front panel to the length of said back panel.

4. The method of constructing trouser legs comprising: forming a back panel, forming a front panel, said front panel being foreshortened relative to said back panel, joining said panels while exerting a tension force on said front panel between the kneeline and cuff line thereof suflicient to lengthen said front panel to the length of said back panel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,000,812 Jacobs Aug. 15, 1911 

1. AN IMPROVED TROUSER CONSTRUCTION COMPRISING; A FRONT LEG PANEL, A BACK LEG PANEL, SAID PANELS HAVING MATED INNER SEAM LINES AND MATED SIDE SEAM LINES, SAID FRONT PANEL BEING FORESHORTENED RELATIVE TO THE BACK PANEL AND STRETCHED AT SAID INNER AND SIDE SEAMS TO THE LENGTH OF THE BACK PANEL AND SEWED THERETO. 